Qatar Company for Airports Operation and Management (Matar) has awarded five major construction contracts in connection with the multi-phased expansion project plans of Hamad International Airport (HIA).

Announcing this at a press conference, Matar said the HIA’s expansion plans, which were previously revealed in the fourth quarter of 2019 will be carried out in two phases, A and B.

Phase A will include linking the north node to the new central concourse. This phase of the airport’s expansion is set to increase the terminal’s handling capacity to more than 53 million passengers annually by 2022, as Qatar hosts the region's first Fifa World Cup Qatar.

Phase B of the expansion plan will further enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million passengers annually to cater to the ever-growing demand in passenger and cargo traffic.  

On the new contracts, Matar said the five companies include a joint venture between Midmac Contracting, TAV Tepe Akfen Investment Construction and Taisei Corporation (MTT), a JV between Urbacon Trading & Contracting, Bahadir Construction and Tedeschia Construction Enterprises (UBT) as well as Beumer Doha and Al Jaber Engineering Company besides a venture led by  Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and another by Teyseer Contracting Company (TCC).

The Qatari group said the western taxiway and stand development works contract was awarded in October last year to a UBT joint venture.

This infrastructure and utility-focused expansion project is aimed at increasing the operational capacity of HIA and add 39 additional aircraft stands. Works for this contract started in Q4 2019, it stated.

Matar said the passenger terminal expansion works, central concourse building and early works contract was awarded to the MTT joint venture in November last year.

The scope of work includes an additional 140,000-sq-m terminal building, adjoining the existing terminal building through Concourse C with an axis that will culminate into a central garden. It will include a new transfer area which will help shorten passengers’ connection time and will improve their overall transfer experience at HIA.

This will also contribute to servicing the continued growth of HIA’s national carrier Qatar Airways, it stated.

The remote transfer baggage facility handling systems was awarded in November last year, while the building projects were awarded this month.

The project is divided into two packages with the first one awarded to Al Jaber Engineering Company for building the facility. The work on this package is set to commence this month, said the Qatari group.

The second package has been bagged by Beumer Doha for supply and installion of the baggage handling system into the Remote Transfer Baggage Facility Building.

The construction of the remote transfer baggage facility handling systems comprises of an airside facility of 34,000 sq m to house the new baggage handling system.

According to Matar, this system will be equipped with best-in-class high capacity tote-based Individual Carrier System (TOTE/ICS) that provides fast, safe and flexible baggage handling from check-in to discharge with 100% accurate track and trace of baggage at every stage of the handling process.

The hold baggage screening system and equipment to be installed in the RTBF will be in compliance with the latest European Civil Aviation Committee (ECAC) Standard 3 requirements, it added.

The Qatari group said the contract for the western fuel farm and midfield fuel farm expansion works was awarded in November to the CCC and TCC joint venture.

The project, which is divided into two packages, midfield fuel farm expansion and western fuel farm will fulfil the need of developing supporting facilities for the growing needs of HIA’s operations due to the new developments. Work on both packages began in December, it added.

On completion, the expanded terminal area will span across a total of 240,000 sq m area and will be integrated with the existing terminal, allowing passengers to seamlessly transfer from one area to the other, enabling HIA to continue to operate with a single expansive terminal, said Matar.

Additionally, HIA’s expansion will also entail the construction of a new cargo terminal which will increase the capacity handled up to 5 million tonnes per year, it added.-TradeArabia News Service